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Research suggests that settling down can boost guys’ health in some surprising ways. Consider these points before writing off commitment for another decade.

Shacking up is good for your heart. Your ticker's more likely to stay in tip-top shape if you're living with someone else, according to new research published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology. In a Finnish study of 15,330 cases of acute coronary syndrome—that's anything that reduces blood flow to the heart—men who were unmarried and living alone were as much as 66 percent more likely to suffer from an event. Even scarier: the likelihood of dying within 28 days of a cardiac event was significantly higher for the bachelors in the group.

Coupledom cuts your booze intake. In a study of 5,000 people in Wisconsin, married men ended up scaling back their alcohol intake after settling down, while women ended up boozing more. The likely reasoning: happier couples tend to drink at roughly the same levels, so women had to step it up once they got hitched and men found themselves imbibing less. Worth noting: The same study found that divorced men drank more than those who were happily hitched, while divorced women drank less than their coupled up counterparts.

Marriage makes you stress less. Being married can actually change levels of the stress hormone cortisol in married people’s brains, according to a study in Stress. Researchers looked at 500 masters' degrees students at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2010. Of the group, about 40 percent of the men and 53 percent of the women were coupled up. The findings: when placed in a high-stress environment, those who were married or in serious relationships produced less cortisol than single students.